Officer Down: Haunted
by LacytheRomanWerewolf
Summary: Time for Aaron to deal with the aftermath of his stunt. HP JRo


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Lacy here. Sorry I'm taking so long lately. My brain isn't on straight right now. Working on that, though. Alright, hopefully this will be the last 'Aaron being stupid' story for a bit. We've got Haunted here. Yeah, Aaron's brilliant stunt at the end. I hope I'm not the only one who wanted to knock his head in for that. You all know, since Em's on maternity leave, Dave will be on the phone to her, letting her know about Aaron's stunt and there will be a very unpleasant talk waiting for Aaron when he gets home. I'd say have fun but, well yeah.

Disclaimer: I only own Mattie.

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~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~

Emily finally got Mattie to sleep when the house phone rang. Picking up the baby monitor, Emily shut Mattie's door and handed to the office, where the closet phone was.

"Hello?"

Emily heard a sigh. "Em, it's Dave."

Emily sat down in Aaron's chair. "What happened?"

Listening while Dave explained Aaron's stunt, Emily felt herself getting more and more angry with the father of her child.

"How soon till you're home, Dave?" Emily asked.

"About an hour." Dave said. "Are you okay?"

Emily took a deep breath. "Call Garcia and ask her to come get Mattie. I don't want her here when Aaron gets home."

She heard Dave curse softly. "Alright Em, if that's what you want."

"It is." Emily said. "She doesn't need to hear me yelling at him."

"I know what he did was stupid," Dave said. "but go easy on him Emily. This is hard for him."

Emily held her head in her free hand. "He promised Mattie he'd always be there for her."

"There's plenty of room at the cabin if you need some cooling off time."

Emily smiled. softly. "Thanks Dave. For the offer and the warning."

"Any time."

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Aaron walked into the house and knew he was in trouble. He'd heard Dave on the phone with Emily on the plane, telling her what happened and offering her a place with him and JJ if she needed space. He knew he screwed up. Dave had told him so, loudly, before they had gotten on the plane. Now he just had to hope Emily didn't leave in her own effort to get that information into his head.

He could hear Emily moving around upstairs and moved in that direction. Most men would have gone the opposite way but Aaron hated it when Emily was mad at him, as rare as it was, and worked to fix the problem as fast as possible.

He found Emily moving around Mattie's room. He was a bit surprised to see their daughter wasn't in her crib.

"She's with Garcia." Emily said without facing Aaron. "I didn't want her to hear any yelling."

Aaron found himself nodding. "Of course."

Emily still her hands, that had been folding some of Mattie's clothes and faced Aaron. "I understand that you miss Jack, Aaron. I do too but I can't even begin to understand what caused you to go into that situation without back up and without your damn gun and vest."

Aaron wanted to say that he'd needed to do it, to get the unsub out unharmed, as he saw the man as much a victim as anyone else. He wanted to say, going in with a vest on and gun drawn wouldn't have helped. He wanted to rattled off all the excuses he used with Dave but he didn't. Because he knew, they were exactly that, excuses. He did not have one good reason for going into that house unarmed, unprotected and without backup.

"I don't understand it either, Em." Aaron said softly. "At the time, it was just instinct and adrenaline. I wasn't thinking about my safety or what could happen. I just went and didn't look back."

"Did you forget the promise you made to Mattie?" Emily asked softly.

Aaron felt a pang of guilt. He had forgotten, for the smallest of moments, the promise he'd made to his daughter. That he'd always be there for her. As soon as the unsub pointed the gun at him though, that promise came flying back and he knew what he did was stupid.

"I," he paused and sighed. "I don't know what to say Em."

Emily exhaled. "Let me know when you know." she turned back to Mattie's clothes. "Can you go put the wash in the dryer?"

Aaron didn't say anything, he knew Emily was letting him get his thoughts and words together but he felt so guilty he couldn't give her an answer. With a sigh, he nodded, even if she couldn't see it, and left the room.

~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~

The next three days went that way. Things appearing normal from the outside but the tension between the new parents was rising. The only time there was almost no awkwardness was when they were together with Mattie.

Finally, Aaron knew he had to talk to Emily. He'd been lying to himself. He knew exactly why he'd done what he did and in order for her to even think about forgiving him for it, he had to explain why. So after she laid Mattie down for the night, he asked to talk to her in the living room.

"I'm tired Aaron," Emily said. "can we make this fast?"

Aaron sighed. Yeah, she was still pissed. "I need to explain."

Emily nodded. "Alright, explain."

Aaron ran a hand over his face. "I've been lost, since we sent Jack and Haley away. Here at home, I've got you and Mattie to focus on because you need me and I love you two more then anything. At work, I thought the case would distract me, keep me from thinking about Jack and Foyet but it didn't work. Foyet kept popping into my head, making me lose my focus and I thought, maybe I didn't have enough to focus on. So when we got to the hostage situation with the unsub, I figured that would be perfect. It wasn't until he pointed his gun at me that I realized exactly what the consequences would be if something happened. What you and Mattie would go through, what would happen to Jack and Haley." he looked at Emily, the tears in her eyes matching his own. "I'm lost Em and I don't know how to find my way back."

All the anger and fear Emily had been fearing drained from her body. She stepped up to Aaron and hugged him. She held him tightly as he cried and her own tears fell down her face. He was finally letting out everything he'd kept bottled since they'd sent Jack and Haley away.

"You're not lost Aaron," Emily whispered. "just off the path a bit. But not for much longer. I'll help you find your way back."

~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~

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Alright, I was gonna put a Aaron/Mattie scene at the end but I figured I had you all crying enough, no need to add more tears and trust me, it would have added more. So let me know what you think, flame policy stands, thanks for reading and let the fruit and veggie throwing begin.

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